System for management of common purchase operations for goods and services

ABSTRACT

An interactive communications system for facilitating the management of purchases performed by individuals or certain businesses in repetitive manner, characterized in that the apparatuses making up the system comprise input means (10, 16), confirmation means (17), suggestion/selection means (18), memory means (13), and display means (11) for displaying the articles to be purchased, which articles may be selected from preceding lists and/or files without omission or repetition. The list of articles to be purchased is then printed on paper by means of a printer (14) or is transferred to other apparatuses of the system by interface means (15). By networking resident and portable apparatuses, freestanding terminals for giving assistance in decision-making and situated at the point of sale, and optionally information or transaction terminals in a temporary or permanent network, it is possible for the purchaser to obtain in real time all of the information and means required for managing the purchase function, and for the vendor to obtain better knowledge of customers and to satisfy customer requirements better.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system enabling better management tobe achieved of common purchase operations for goods and services,particularly domestic purchases performed by individuals and,optionally, supplies for certain businesses.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The difficulties encountered by individuals and small firms in managingsuch operations once they become complex are known; it is also known howfiddly they can become when performed, not occasionally, but habituallyand repetitively, and when the articles to be purchased making up a listdiffer from the preceding list merely by updating, and it can thus beseen how advantageous it would be to be able to bring such a list up todate easily at any time on the basis of information that is current andeasily accessible.

Some of the information depends directly on the purchaser, such as stocklevel or available budget; other information can be parameterized as afunction of criteria such as season, purchasing periodicity, number ofguests at table, a recipe, or a diet; finally other information isavailable with the vendor, but is not always accessible to the purchaserwhen drawing up the list, e.g. article availability, prices, promotions,and sales.

Thus, it would be advantageous for the purchaser to be able to draw up alist of purchases by means of a system that is simple yet effective,without omission and without repetition, even if the list needs to bedrawn up over a period of time that is quite long and by severaldifferent people independently, and for it to be possible to organizesaid list automatically as a function of criteria such as type of goods,place of sale, and method of delivery or of payment, thus making itpossible to avoid errors and loss of time when ordering goods or makingpurchases in a store.

Simultaneously, the vendor would like to have a marketing analysis toolavailable enabling customers to be identified by location, tastes,purchasing habits, and budget, thus making it possible to informcustomers of any information relevant to making an order, whenever suchinformation becomes available, thereby offering better service tocustomers and increasing the vendor's chance of keeping their customers.

Some order-management software makes it possible to manage the making upof the list, but is too complex and inconvenient for use by individuals.

Computer networking makes it possible to interchange data in real timein certain leading professional sectors, such as the travel industry.

In the long term, on-line selling in association with video catalogsshould make it possible to simplify and rationalize purchasing byindividuals, except insofar as such selling will always be restrictedwhenever physical contact is necessary or desirable. That has alreadybeen proposed in WO-A-85 02700 which describes a system for orderinggoods or services by generating data representative of a particularorder, which data is sent to a local processor center over telephonelines.

Furthermore, many individuals receive a great deal of information via TVadvertising and make purchase decisions before going to the point ofsale: they make a list on a wall chart and then copy it down onto apiece of paper shortly before going there. In the long term,freestanding interactive video terminals at the point of sale forproviding information and help in decision-making may participate inupdating information, but that will nevertheless not make it possible tocombine such information with criteria specific to the customer andexpressed on a paper list.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to mitigate the above drawbacks and topartake of the potential advantages of a communications systemconstituted by apparatuses having technically similar characteristicsbut subdivided into three categories depending on how they are embodiedand where they are located:

apparatuses permanently installed in dwellings, offices, etc. . . .referred to as "resident" apparatus;

portable apparatuses; and

apparatuses installed at a point of sale, e.g. coupled with afreestanding interactive terminal for providing information and help indecision-making.

Such apparatuses are capable of communicating in interactive manner withtheir users, in particular a purchaser, and with one another byimplementing a network that is temporary or permanent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be well understood from the following descriptionmade with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of typical apparatus forming a portion of thesystem of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a wall-mounted apparatus constituting saidfirst embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a wall-mounted apparatus constituting saidsecond embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a three-quarter view of a portable case for a memory card andconstituting a variant of said second embodiment;

FIG. 7 shows another variant of said second embodiment in which theapparatus is integrated in a freestanding interactive terminal;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a front view of a wall-mounted apparatus constituting saidthird embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 shows a variant of said third embodiment as a three-quarter viewof a remote control box;

FIG. 11 shows another variant of said third embodiment in which theapparatus is integrated in a freestanding interactive terminal; and

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network connection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, such an interactive communications systemfor managing common operations of purchasing goods and services, mainlydomestic purchases performed by individuals and optionally supplies forcertain businesses, the system comprising apparatuses capable ofcommunicating with one another, and at least one of which comprisesfirst means for inputting purchases to be made, and constituted, forexample, by a typewriter-like keyboard, a calculator-like keypad, atouch screen, or other means such as means for recognizing handwritingor voice; second means for providing an alphanumeric, graphics, or videodisplay for displaying the list of purchases to be made or beingprocessed, together with an indication of a purchase category or ofother selection criteria; third means for storage purposes in whichfiles of articles constituted by standard lists or by earlier lists arestored for use as a reference when creating new lists; fourth means forstorage purposes in which lists that are being drawn up are stored,characterized in that it further comprises fifth means for confirminginput and constituted by keys representing various categories ofpurchase, such as beverages, meat, groceries, bakery, household,pharmacy, cleaning materials, and a "general" category, for example,with said means for confirming input being used after each input toenable the list of purchases to be organized by category independentlyof the order of input.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the system furthercomprises means defining a "message" category for interchanginginformation between the various people participating in creating thelist.

According to the invention such apparatus also comprises sixth means forsuggestion and/or selection purposes constituted by keys giving accessto the contents of third means for storage and enabling said contents tobe transferred to the fourth means corresponding to the list that isbeing created;

In a variant of this embodiment, such suggestion/selection keys and thecategory-confirmation keys may be the same keys.

In an embodiment of the invention, such apparatus comprises seventhmeans for output purposes constituted by a printer enabling the list ofpurchases to be physically printed out on paper.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the apparatus alsoincludes:

eighth means for storage purposes in which various programmable criteriaare stored, such as vendor stock levels and article prices, for example,or other more specific criteria such as purchaser stock level, availablebudget, purchase periodicity, season, number of guests, a recipe, orrules governing a balanced diet; and

ninth means for computation purposes, enabling the first and secondmeans to be managed, and in particular serving to sort the articlesmaking up the list stored in the fourth means as a function of criteriastored in the eighth means.

The invention also proposes a system in which the tenth means forcomputation purposes enabling lists that are being made up and that arestored in the fourth means to be compared with standard lists and/orwith preceding lists stored in the third means in order to avoidomissions and repetitions.

In another embodiment of the invention, some of the apparatuses may bemade in the form of portable units capable of dialog with otherapparatuses of the system via:

eleventh means for connection purposes such as an electrical connector,an infrared connector, or a modem, enabling reading and writing to beperformed in external memories implemented in the form of a memory card,ROM, RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or in some other form.

In another embodiment of the invention, certain apparatuses may beintegrated in interactive terminals capable of dialog with otherapparatuses of the system via:

eleventh means for connection purposes such as an electrical connector,an infrared connector, or a modem, enabling reading and writing to beperformed in external memories implemented in the form of a memory card,ROM, RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or in some other form.

In another embodiment of the invention, the resident apparatus isconnected in a temporary or permanent network with other computerapparatuses, some of which are situated on the premises of thepurchaser: a video catalog, a terminal for sending orders to a remotepoint, and a freestanding terminal for making payment and capable ofidentifying the purchaser by the security code of a memory card or of aninfrared control box, and other apparatuses on vendor premises: anon-line catalog, a central computer for managing the network.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1 which is a block diagram of a standardapparatus forming part of the system, in which the input means (10), thedisplay means (11), the output means (14), and interface means withmemory and with external apparatuses (15), are interconnected bycomputing and storage means (12, 13).

Reference is then made to FIG. 2 which is a block diagram of a firstembodiment in which the apparatus for facilitating domestic purchasesincludes a printer (14) suitable for printing the list.of purchases tobe made on paper.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the apparatus showing said first embodiment inwhich the apparatus is in the form of a "resident" box, preferably awall-mounted box (15) having an alphanumeric keyboard (16) thereontogether with keys for confirmation (17) and for suggestion and/orselection (18) purposes, an LCD or LED alphanumeric display (19), and aprinter (14).

In this embodiment, the special confirmation keys enable the list to beorganized and printed in a manner that is independent of the order inwhich items are keyed in; the apparatus can also keep a record in itsmemory of the most recent list that it has printed out and use it as areference for making up the next list; in a preferred variant, theapparatus can store a standard list of articles that is made availablevia the suggestion/selection key.

This embodiment constitutes a simple version of the invention comprisinga single apparatus. In this case, information is conveyed from thepurchaser to the point of sale by means of the paper list printed by theresident apparatus. In this embodiment, the vendor has no directinfluence on purchase decisions, except insofar as the vendor may beassociated in drawing up the standard list which is integrated in theapparatuses.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4 which is a block diagram of a secondembodiment in which the "resident" apparatus includes an interface withother apparatuses of the system, said interface being implemented bymeans of a read/write connector to a removable read/write memory: thememory is dedicated to transferring information between the apparatusesof the system; it may be implemented, for example, by means of aso-called "smart" card, in which case the connector is similar to thoseused in various banking terminals.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a first variant of the apparatus, illustratingthis second embodiment, in which the apparatus is in the form of aresident box (15) having the same characteristics as in the firstembodiment shown in FIG. 3, the only difference being that the printer(19) is replaced by a connector for reading and writing in a memory card(20).

FIG. 6 shows another variant of this second embodiment of the apparatusin the form of a portable case for a memory card (21) and performing thesame functions as the associated resident apparatus, the connectorequipment enabling such a small-sized case to be manufactured beingavailable on the market, e.g. from companies such as Bull CP8,Schlumberger, or Gemplus where the cards are so-called "smart" cards, orfrom suppliers such as Atari or Sharp who use other technologies forimplementing small-sized connectable memories.

The resident apparatus of FIG. 5 and the portable apparatus of FIG. 6interchange information by means of the memory card or of any otherwritable removable memory that may be available on the market.

FIG. 7 shows a third variant of this second embodiment, in which theapparatus is integrated in a freestanding interactive terminal (22):

this apparatus is capable of communicating with other apparatuses of thesystem by means of its memory card interface connector (20), and ofprinting out the list of purchases on paper by means of its printer(19);

it also serves to organize said list as a function of the floor plan ofthe store, optionally providing a diagram of where to find variousdepartments, together with advice, suggestions, and advertising relevantto immediate purchase.

The purchaser can then collect the goods using the list on paper, takedelivery of the purchases at the checkout if so desired, or else orderhome delivery.

The apparatus is also capable of identifying the customer, of using acomputer interface (not shown in the drawings but of conventionaltechnology) to transfer information concerning the customer to a centralcomputer that will give repeat purchase bonus points, discounts, orother advantages, and to write information into the memory of the cardthat the purchaser can read either by means of the portable apparatus,or later on by means of the resident apparatus.

Reference is now made to FIG. 8 which is a block diagram of a thirdembodiment of the apparatus of the invention in which the interfacebetween various different apparatuses is implemented by means of aremote communications device (23), e.g. using infrared radiation.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a first variant of the apparatus illustratingthis third embodiment, in which the resident apparatus has the samecharacteristics as in the first variant of the second embodiment shownin FIG. 5, the only difference being that the connector for interfacinga memory card (20) is replaced therein by an infrared device (23)capable of operating both for transmission and for reception.

FIG. 10 shows a second variant of said third embodiment of the apparatusin the form of a box (24) performing the same functions as theassociated resident apparatus, the two apparatuses being capable ofinterchanging information by means of the infrared device (23) of a kindcommonly used for remote control in numerous consumer audiovisualappliances.

This apparatus may be in the form of a pocket-sized box (24) that can beplaced on, or fixed to, a shopping cart while making purchases, and thelist can be scrolled on its display.

FIG. 11 shows a third variant of this third embodiment, in which theapparatus is integrated in a freestanding interactive terminal (22):

this apparatus is capable of communicating with other apparatuses bymeans of the infrared device (23), and of printing out the list ofpurchases on paper by means of its printer (14).

This variant also possesses the same options as the "freestanding"variant of the second embodiment.

Finally, reference is made to FIG. 12 which shows a fourth embodiment ofthe system of the invention, corresponding to making purchases remotelyand enabling the list of purchases to be generated, the order to bemade, delivery requests to be made, and payment to be made all withouttravelling.

In this embodiment, the resident apparatus (15) is mounted in atemporary or permanent network together with other computer apparatusessituated:

some of them on purchaser premises: video catalog (25), terminal formaking a remote order (26) and payment terminal (27) capable ofidentifying the purchaser by the security code of a memory card or of aninfrared control box (24); and some of them on the premises of thevendor: on-line catalog (25), and central computer controlling thenetwork (28).

I claim:
 1. A computer system for preparing a list of food items to be purchased comprising:a processor; a display; a temporary memory storage means for storing said list of purchases; a permanent memory storage means for storing a standard list of purchases organized according to various categories of purchases and programmable selection criteria based on rules for a balanced diet; the processor sorting the list of purchases to be made by categories of purchases; and a keyboard comprising dedicated keys for directly selecting and displaying one of said category of purchases of said standard list and a key for copying selected items from the permanent storage means for storing the standard list of purchases to the temporary storage means for storing said list of purchases to be made.
 2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the processor compares the list of purchases to be made stored in the temporary memory storage means with the standard list of purchases and with selection criteria based on rules for a balanced diet stored in the permanent memory storage means and displays on said display a list of purchases modified according to said criteria.
 3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the temporary memory storage means is a RAM, the permanent memory storage means is a ROM.
 4. The computer system according to claim 3, wherein said computer systems is a portable computer.
 5. The computer system according to claim 4, further comprising a bi-directional computer communication interface.
 6. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein the bi-directional communication interface is an infrared communication interface.
 7. A computer network comprising a store computer system temporary connected to at least one computer system according to claim
 5. 8. The computer network according to claim 7, wherein the store computer is an on-line catalog.
 9. A computer system comprising apparatuses capable of communicating with one another:i) a first portable apparatus containing:a processor; a display a temporary memory storage means for storing a list of purchases; a permanent memory storage means for storing a standard list of purchases organized according to various categories of purchases and programmable selection criteria; the processor sorting the list of purchases to be made by categories of purchases; a keyboard comprising dedicated keys for directly selecting and displaying one of said category of purchases of said standard list and a key for copying selected items from the permanent storage means for storing the standard list of purchases to the temporary storage means for storing said list of purchases to be made; and a bidirectional computer communication interface; ii) a second wall-mounted apparatus comprising:a processor; a display; a temporary memory storage means for storing said list of purchases; a permanent memory storage means for storing a standard list of purchases organized according to various categories of purchases and programmable selection criteria; the processor sorting the list of purchases to be made by categories of purchases; a keyboard comprising dedicated keys for directly selecting and displaying one of said category of purchases of said standard list and a key for copying selected items from the permanent storage means for storing the standard list of purchases to the temporary storage means for storing said list of purchases to be made; and a bidirectional computer communication interface; iii) a shop computer comprising a free-standing interactive terminal containing a bidirectional communication interface.
 10. A computer system according to the claim 9 wherein the bidirectional communication interface is an infrared communication interface. 